Lentil Soup

Well, the illness continues, and so does the soup. I promise tomorrow we will have something different, although I doubt it will be very ambitious. Whenever I get the chance I lie around and moan, my own little pity party. Right now this thing has settled into a really bad cold, so I consider myself lucky. The worst symptoms passed quickly.

I was kind of disappointed in this soup. I used green lentils, which didn't break down at all. The regular brown lentils will get kind of mushy and make a thicker soup. This soup was brothy, with pieces of carrot and celery. The green lentils would be great in a recipe like this, but for soup, I'm going to stick with brown, or even red, which break down completely.

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I started by sauteing diced carrots, celery and onion in oil. When they had started to soften, I added 1 cup green lentils, 4 cups chicken stock, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and a bay leaf. Simmered 30 minutes, until the lentils were soft.